I’m so confused by all these government workers complaining that they’re about to go broke. How are they so destitute? Do they not have 6 months worth of cash savings- which any financial planner will tell you-? Or credit cards...? I just don’t get it.

Anonymous wrote:Interview with Wilbur Ross today. Shows why billionaires - even genuine billionaires - are bad at governing.

CNBC: Secretary Ross, do you worry about safety at airports amid the shutdown?

ROSS: I do, & it's disappointing that air traffic controllers are calling in sick

CNBC: Many of them can't afford to support their families

ROSS: Well, remember, they are eventually going to be paid

He then says this about fed workers going to homeless shelters to get food: "I don't quite understand why." Says they should just go take out loans.

I suggest they take a small one million dollar loan from daddy.

Interview with Wilbur Ross today. Shows why billionaires - even genuine billionaires - are bad at governing.

CNBC: Secretary Ross, do you worry about safety at airports amid the shutdown?

ROSS: I do, & it's disappointing that air traffic controllers are calling in sick

CNBC: Many of them can't afford to support their families

ROSS: Well, remember, they are eventually going to be paid

He then says this about fed workers going to homeless shelters to get food: "I don't quite understand why." Says they should just go take out loans.

I hope Mark Warner's attempt to legislate common sense and decency with his "Stop Stupidity" Act to prevent shutdowns is successful
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sen-mark-warner-introduces-stop-stupidity-act-aimed-at-preventing-future-shutdowns/2019/01/22/2bafc150-1e82-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.85df90343d09

Here is a quote from the comments section of this article:
"For anyone who might be tempted to think shutting down the government is just a power play built into the structure of our government: No.

If I grab a butter knife at dinner and stab someone, I don't get to blame the person who set the table. The butter knife wasn't meant for that.

IOW, the modern-day weaponization of the shutdown is the problem here.

The veto power of the POTUS is provided by the Constitution as one of the checks and balances of the system. Congress makes laws; the President can veto one if he believes it would be a bad law. He should NOT be able to blackmail Congress by dictating what the law must be, or he will veto necessary funding bills.

Mitch McConnell is backing Trump's power play by refusing to do his job. Pass a funding bill. If Trump vetos it, override the veto. Time to choose country over partisan loyalty, Mitch. (There's always a first time....)"

The shutdown's impact on the US economy explained:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/18/18188262/government-shutdown-economy-recession-workers-gdp

There are also a bunch of small agencies and federal programs that the average taxpayer is unaware of. The federal government spends just 14.2% of its total budget on non defense discretionary spending. A big chunk of that 14.2% goes to bolster national security and ensure law and order (Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice including the FBI, the CIA, State Department, Department of Corrections), Part of the 14.2% of the federal budget goes to fund many agencies and programs that do research and gather data. Scientific research for example is just 2% of the total federal budget and many of these programs are impacted (NOAA, FDA, USDA, NASA, NIST, Smithsonian to name a few).

There are also many government agencies and programs that do economic research (Commerce Department, Census, Treasury, USDA, BLS to name just a few). They work synergistically so although BLS is open they cannot produce all the reports they normally do because they rely on data and analysis from the other agencies that are currently closed. The Federal Reserve is open but depends on data from all these government agencies to make informed decisions about monetary policy.

We often hear that the most valuable commodity in our modern capitalist economy is data and no organization in the world produces and analyzes as much good data as the US government. We have a veritable brain trust of Ph.D scientists and Ph.D economists who gather and analyze incredible amounts of quality information. It is what farmers use to decide how much to plant and when to sell their crops, it is what our 401k managers use to decide what to buy and sell, it is what companies use to decide whether to expand, and how much to produce and how to plan for the future. Right now the eyes and ears all these private sector actors rely on are offline and the costs will be real over the next year as decisions are made on the basis of bad or incomplete information.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown-data-explainer/explainer-u-s-government-shutdown-leaves-data-vacuum-in-its-wake-idUSKCN1PG2UI

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/20/687045376/lack-of-data-processing-during-government-shutdown-compounds-economic-effects

The impact on scientific data collection and scientific research is also going to have long term effects. This is an excellent article which describes the short and long term impact on scientific research

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-record-breaking-government-shutdown-disrupting-science

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question about tomorrow’s Senate votes - if the Schumer proposal is essentially the same as what the House passed earlier this month, why are folks now saying it’s likely to fail in the Senate? I thought part of the outrage about McConnell not allowing a vote is that it was expected to pass and would force Trump to veto? But now it’s not expected to pass? Or is it not the same as what the House previously passed?

I thought he was putting out a bill to give what Trump proposed?

There are supposed to be 2 Senate votes Thursday on “competing” bills. McConnell’s is the Trump proposal. Question above looks to be about Schumer’s bill.

Trump has probably talked Republican's out of voting for it. My guess is that if McConnel's bill passes the Senate, Pelosi will put it up for a vote in the House and it will fail to pass the House proving that Trump doesn't have the votes to get what he wants.

There are no democrat vote for Turtle bill. And infact there maybe republican desertion in the form of gardner and collins.

There won't be enough republicans willing to vote the way the did on the same bill in December. The vote was unanimous. They've been told they need to support Trump's bill and oppose Schumer's. Both bills will fail.

Todays vote will show which republican Will live up to their constitutional duty of being co-equal branch of gov or being Donald’s rubber stamp.
Very helpful for 2020.

The shutdown might permanently impact some small and rural transit networks

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/24/government-shutdown-transportation-funding-1107192

Anonymous wrote:

Trump is not an American. He does not believe in anything but himself.

Actually, I would think that is in keeping with the vast majority of Americans and their worship of money, consumerism, private property, and narcissism.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just start permanent layoffs. No one misses these civil servants.

Go on strike. Do it!

Yeah Coast Guard should quit confiscating drugs and migrants off the coast. Maybe Trump can build a wall along all the beaches instead.

There should be no security checks at seaports, airports or food plants either.

Already the FBI has run out of money that it's used in operations trying to crack down on drug dealings.

I'm sure Trump wants to layoff FBI and any law enforcement / justice / court operations he can right now.

No. Really? /s

I know most people are focused on TSA and IRS and the Coast Guards which is understandable but there is long term damage being done to small government agencies and government funded programs
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/science/2019/01/23/shutdown-could-soon-block-telescopes-view-heavens/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it will be over sometime next week. The pressure is building on all sides. Reports about the FBI and FAA and TSA are really bad becoming untenable. GOP will agree to open without wall money in exchange for a promise to bring a vote to the floor on it.

Agree, GOP will give in next week. Government will be opened first, then they can haggle about the wall until pigs fly.

Disagree.

I think that Trump is going to veto anything that comes his way and Turtle will go and blame the Democrats instead of overriding it.

Stocks will go down as FDA, DOD, PTO shutdown.

Dump the Trump will be heard on Wall Street and impeachment proceedings will begin. Then will the shutdown ends.

But I’m an optimist.

Anonymous wrote:I think it will be over sometime next week. The pressure is building on all sides. Reports about the FBI and FAA and TSA are really bad becoming untenable. GOP will agree to open without wall money in exchange for a promise to bring a vote to the floor on it.

Agree, GOP will give in next week. Government will be opened first, then they can haggle about the wall until pigs fly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]I think it will be over sometime next week. The pressure is building on all sides. Reports about the FBI and FAA and TSA are really bad becoming untenable. GOP will agree to open without wall money in exchange for a promise to bring a vote to the floor on it.

[/b]

Vote first then open. Promises can be broken. Only a fool would agree to open first.

I agree. GOP is going to cave. Next week.

Trump is not an American. He does not believe in anything but himself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck getting 70 senators. Despite what you believe, people in this country do want a wall and border security. Senators know this.

Except a majority of Americans do NOT want a border wall. So no.

I am not so sure. There has been only one candidate whose opening remarks were building a wall, and that guy won the election on his first try.

And lost the popular vote by more than 3 million and got historically crushed in the midterms. He is only President because of the Electoral College. But no, the majority of Americans overwhelmingly oppose spending money on the wall. Remember, Trump campaigned that Mexico was going to pay for it. So why are our Federal employees being squeezed?

We don't have a system of electing president by popular votes. R expanded its senate majority in the midterms. There is no definitive answer as to whether a majority of Americans want a wall. The only things are definitive -- Trump is the president, R controls the senate, and D controls the house. It appears 2/3 wants a wall.

We don't have system where the President + one House of Congress overrules the other House.

And as for what the majority want, they have polls for that. Polls do in fact provide definitive answers on what the majority of people want.

In our system, the minority has a say but it can't overrule the President and the other House of Congress.

Polls attempt to predict. Polls only provide definitive answers by the small samples being surveyed. The definitive answers to policy questions are provided by the actual national elections -- a divided government that 2/3 is controlled by the Republicans.

First of all, opinion polls that are not about elections tell you people think right now. They don't predict anything, like a thermometer does not predict temperature, it tells you the current temperature.

Second, national elections do not provide policy answers. People vote for a candidate they prefer for a variety of reasons, not necessarily any one single policy, and not all people have the same reasons.

Third, when passing legislation, BOTH HOUSES AND PRESIDENT must agree, except in cases of veto override, when it's 2 out of 3 against the President. When does one house of Congress get overruled? NEVER. Simply not part of our system. In the end, divided government requires cooperation, not specious arguments about things that aren't and never were.